


On Dwarvish Religion

by KivrinEngle



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Meta, Metafiction, Other, this is not fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-03
Updated: 2015-11-02
Packaged: 2018-04-29 16:29:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5134694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KivrinEngle/pseuds/KivrinEngle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of short meta pieces on Tolkien's Dwarves, mainly on their religious beliefs and practices. Previously posted on Tumblr, and they've seen a bit of interest there, so I wanted to bring them over here and have them all in one place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Thoughts on the Religion of Tolkien's Dwarves

Some thoughts on Dwarven religion. Please note, this is all speculation and interpretation – we don’t seem to know that much about Dwarven religion because, as with so many things, Tolkien just wasn’t as interested in the Dwarves! I’ve done a lot of thinking about it, though, and come up with what seems to make sense.

The most important thing, I think, is their creation story. That sets everything in motion, and defines their relationships with their gods – and it also creates the basis of what it means to be a Dwarf.

Eru Ilúvatar is the highest power, of course, and all life flows through him. No good Dwarf would ever lack in respect for that – but I don’t think they have much of a personal relationship with him. I don’t see any evidence for the kinds of organized worship that marks so many human religions in Middle Earth. The Elves sing to Elbereth, but it’s reverence and devotion, not prostrate worship. I don’t see much in the way of fealty and sacrifice in Elvish circles, but then I think that’s the way of the Elves. Having lived with the Valar in Valinor, many Elves would probably have a very clear-eyed view of the Valar, and look on them more as exalted people than distantly-removed god figures. They sing their history. Many of the figures who would be holy stories in human religion are, well, memories – people they knew personally, sometimes intimately. When we hear stories of Gilgalad or Eärendil, those aren’t distant legends. They’re family history.

The Dwarves, though – we know they revere Mahal, and I do think their religion would have more of a worshipful component. I think Dwarves like things to be in their right places, and the idea of hierarchy and order makes sense to them. Ilúvatar foremost, then Mahal, then the Fathers of the Dwarves, then themselves, their descendants. I DO think a bit more fealty and reverence would be seen in Dwarven religion.

Think about their creation. Mahal created them with his own hands, from the desire to have children of his own he could teach and guide. That’s LOVE, overwhelming and astounding and personal. The Dwarves were made in love – and in secret. They treasure that, I think – that they were born of the secret heart of their great Maker, and that he risked so much to bring them about. He embodies them with strength and an unwillingness to yield or to be dominated – but also with the appreciation of beauty, and with his own inherent desire to create. They’re made in his image, and meant to carry on his knowledge and heart.

When Ilúvatar found what he had done, Mahal was willing to destroy the children he had created because of the immensity of what he had done against Ilúvatar’s plan – and that’s critical, too. Love is important, but so is duty and honor and fealty – and that’s woven into Dwarven DNA from their creation, I think, through the example of their creator. He would have mourned his children bitterly, but he was willing to sacrifice them (shades of Biblical Abraham and Isaac, perhaps?) But Ilúvatar gave them spirits of their own, a spark of the Secret Fire to animate them, and they showed their life by demonstrating that they were afraid, and so they were spared. There is a depth of emotion to the Dwarves that is not always appreciated – but it’s there from the start.

So love and duty are critical – and then the importance of knowledge and creation. Mahal gives them a language of their own, and what do the Dwarves do? Treasure it! Keep it secret, and sacred! They do not allow one iota of change to that sacred language. It is their gift, and it is treated with great reverence – to the point that many aspects of Dwarven culture are centered around the keeping of the language. This is a race with unfathomable respect for the gifts of their maker. I think the same is true of the desire to create that he places in them. There’s a reason that the things the Dwarves create are beautiful, enduring – and so often SECRET. They share their maker’s faults, too – impatience, independence to the point of stubborn willfulness, pride that can get in the way of their best desires – but the best parts of them are reflections of Mahal and his gifts.

And then we come to their relationships with their gods and with other races. Ilúvatar shows mercy to the Fathers of the Dwarves, and accepts them as his adopted children. They carry a spark of the Secret Fire, set in them by his mercy, and I do not doubt that he loves them. But they are not his creation. He tells Mahal that since they were created outside the Music of the Ainur, they would find strife between them and the Elves. “They shall be to thee as children,” he tells Mahal, “and often strife shall arise between thine and mine, the children of my adoption and the children of my choice.” It’s not just personality clashes – they are inherently, irrevocably different creations.

I think the Dwarves must be keenly aware of this – and aware of the fact that the Elves are the firstborn, and will always be first in the heart of Ilúvatar. He puts the Dwarves to sleep until the Elves have awakened and done what they are meant to – and while they are under the sun, the Dwarves sleep “in the darkness under stone…they shall wait, though long it seem.” They are second, from the start, and in some ways perhaps even less than that. Men and Elves are the Children of Ilúvatar, and the Dwarves are not, and will never be. They cannot become more than they are in his eyes. They will never earn any fuller love or acceptance from him, not until the end of the world. That has to rankle in a heart, and I firmly believe that is one of the chief reasons for the insularity of the Dwarves. They cannot compete with Men and Elves, they will always be lesser – and so why not keep to your mountains and secret places, speaking your own language and doing what your Maker has given you to do? Why struggle for something you can never have? Be the best of what you have been made to be, and leave the rest to the firstborn, the children of Eru’s heart.

But still – they were shown mercy, and they were adopted. I have a pet theory that these are crucial aspects of Dwarf society, though probably not ones that outsiders ever get to see. I theorise that what Thorin does with Fili and Kili – taking on the role of father, though never replacing their natural father in title or in spirit – must be deeply codified into their society. Dwarf children would not be left fatherless. I actually have deep headcanon about this – older Dwarves like Balin are probably fathers or grandfathers to many children, even if they never have any of their own.

And then there’s the whole question of reincarnation, and to be frank, I’m not really certain where this one would fit. We see a very firm belief that Durin at least of the Fathers has returned to his people again and again in times of need – but we don’t see Dwarves calling for his return again, or looking to him as a messianic figure, even in the dark times of Smaug or the War of the Ring. Have Dwarves been reincarnated? I see no reason to doubt it. Are they looking for it to happen, or placing a great deal of faith in it for salvation? I sincerely doubt it.

So then, how might their religion work out in general? Seems fair to assume they don’t shuffle off to church one a week, sing a few lack-luster praise songs and murmur prayers they stopped believing as children, and then shuffle back home to go about their lives. But it also doesn’t seem to me that their religion would be much interested in making them fear damnation after death, or working for salvation. They CERTAINLY aren’t taking it door to door to convert others. So how does it work?

Here’s my take on religious institutions: I don’t think they exist. I would lay odds that all religious instruction is done orally, and probably ONLY in Khuzdul. You use sacred words to talk about sacred things. We know that children are VERY carefully instructed in Khuzdul, and I bet they learn their history and religion at the same time - probably from very wise and venerable old Dwarves (men AND women, if you please!) who are entrusted with keeping tradition alive. Perhaps not priests as such, but the very wise - and Oin with his reading of the portents might be one such figure! Perhaps he’s along on their journey partially in that role?

I firmly believe the MAJORITY of dwarven religion is worked out on an individual level. It’s in the way you pick up your hammer, the way you stoke your fires. It’s murmurings of ancient words, and the way that you swing the hammer, and the patterns you create. You carve the stone as you were carved by the hands of your god; weave the metal the way your soul was woven into your frame. Mahal the Maker created your fathers, and taught them the secrets of fire and stone and metal – and so every swing of a hammer is a prayer, a reiteration of fealty and love and honour. Every word in Kuzdul is sacred, because the words were given as a gift – and every breath that breathes them forth is sacred, an exhalation of life created in love, a product of the Secret Fire granted in mercy. Dwarves live every moment in the execution of their purpose, and Dwarves have nothing to fear from death. And so you fight with the strength of your god, and die secure in the knowledge that you go to the Halls of your maker, there to wait with him and all the Dwarves that have come before, until the remaking of the world – and then you will begin again, picking up your hammer and bringing that which was secret into the open. Mahal told the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves that in the end, Ilúvatar will hallow the Dwarves and give them a place among his Children. And so you know, you who delve in the darkness in the image of your maker – you know what is to come. By your strength and knowledge and craft you will remake the world, and the secrets of Mahal and the Dwarves will make the world right – the world where Elves and Men and Dwarves may finally dwell equally in the light of Eru.


	2. The Obscenity of Smaug: On Mahal and Dwarven Sacred Space

Smaug is a problem. In the text he is a fascinating and even an appealing antagonist; on screen, he is captivating and more than a little terrifying. But in the context of Middle Earth, particularly within the world of the Dwarves, he is nothing short of an utter obscenity. Wiser heads than mine have explored the political, economic, and physical problems he poses. Here, I would like to consider Smaug’s occupation of Erebor and the possible religious implications.

This has turned into rather a lengthy thought, so I have enumerated for (hopeful) clarity. First, several relevant facts from canon, drawn mainly from the Silmarillion.

1\. Mahal is the Maker. It is the primary thing the Dwarves know about him. He is the Inventor, the Builder, the Smith; he built the lands and the mountains, and laid the gold and the gems that the Dwarves love. What they know of him is this: he delights in workmanship and innovation, and works of skill both great and small.

2\. The Dwarves were created for the purpose of learning from Mahal, because he desired “learners to whom he could teach his lore and his crafts.” He began to teach them from the first hour of their creation. He created them from love, and from a desire for companionship. What they know of him is this: they are the Auleonnar, the children of Mahal. They are loved.

3\. Dwarvish craftsmanship is exceptional. They are also exceptional in their own creation. Dwarves are known across Middle Earth for the quality of their work. They do not work in half measures or cut corners. They are not afraid to work hard, because it is what they were made for. The Silmarillion tells us that they were created to be hardy - stone hard, strong to endure. They were created for this work, and instructed in it by the master. Their work is to be praised. What they know is this: they create, in they way they were created, and in the crafts taught to them by their Maker.

Taking these first three points, I believe we can extrapolate a bit. I pose the following argument:

4\. Creation, for Dwarves, is an act akin to worship. It is sacred. When they work a forge or delve deep below the earth or swing a hammer, they are participating in an act of creation that mirrors their own creation by their Father. It is a mirror of Mahal’s own actions, because when he is discovered in his clandestine creation, he tells Iluvatar “Yet the making of things is in my heart from my own making by thee; and the child of little understanding that makes a play of the deeds of his father may do so without thought of mockery, but because he is the son of his father.” As Mahal imitates his own Creator, the Dwarves act on the love of creation and skill for it that are in their hearts as a legacy from their own Father. They claim their birthright with the works of their hands, and prove in their sweat and blood that they are the Children of Mahal. Creation is nothing less than a sacred act of imitation of their Maker.

4a. It might also be argued that there is an element of supplication to creation - an appeal to Mahal, an attempt to prove oneself worthy of the regard of the Maker by skillful and faithful application of the craft and strength one has been given. Can the forging of a sword be a prayer? Can a properly crafted crown be an offering to your God? Can the ring of a hammer on steel be a song of praise?

4b. Dwarves must create. It is the entire purpose of their being; it is the reason they were created. I see no evidence for a strict legalistic religious system, but I would argue that to NOT create, in whatever form that takes, would be seen as nearly blasphemous. Equally so, the idea of creating poorly or without care. Creation is an act of obedience, of fealty, of worship.

As a corollary, then, I further argue that:

5\. Created items, made by Dwarvish hands and Dwarvish skills, are inherently Sacred. Not inviolably so - they are made to be used, not hidden away or left untouched - but they matter in a deeper way than outsiders could understand.

6\. Dwarvish PLACES are also inherently Sacred. They are created by Dwarves, using the skills and gifts of the Maker, and created from the materials that he has given them - the land itself, the earth and stone and metal that he worked in the creation of Ea. They are not worked for the comfort of other races (note here the unpleasantness of the Elvish term “Moria”, or “Black Pit” for Khazad-dum, the Dwarrow-Delf, the mansions of Durin’s folk). They mimic the place in which the Dwarves were created - for Mahal created them in secret, in “a hall under the mountains in Middle-Earth.” In their long sleep until they were permitted to awaken, the Fathers of the Dwarves were laid to rest under the stone. In creating their homes and halls, Dwarves mimic their creation, and honor their maker.

6a. Imagine the workmanship on their halls! Imagine what you would create, if creation itself were worship and fealty to your god. Imagine what details you would labour over, uncaring whether any other Dwarf would ever see them, because you know that you are working under the eye of the Maker, and that he is pleased by your skill. Imagine Nogrod and Belegost. Imagine Erebor. Imagine Khazad-dum.

We see, then, that many of the accusations that outsiders (and the text itself, Elvishly-biased as it is) throw at the Dwarves have their foundation in their creation and religion, if we could take the term so far. They are said to hide away in their halls, intent only on creating their chosen items, in gold and gems and mithril. They are said not to care about the troubles of other races. (Here, I choose to leave entirely alone the question of why the HELL the Dwarves should give a damn about any other race on the planet, given their history. Ahem.) But if they keep to their mountains because those places are sacred - if they create because not to do so is something akin to blasphemy - if they delve so “greedily” for gold and mithril because those things are gifts to them from their creator - well. I should say that perhaps Iluvatar was entirely right when he predicted strife between the children of his choice and those of his adoption. The children of Iluvatar will never understand the Children of Mahal.

I ask you now to remember the Dwarves as they were in their full strength, before darkness descended upon them. Remember Gimli’s song in Khazad-dum, the Song of Durin, when the world was fair. Imagine their halls, full of light and song and WORK, when music woke and the Dwarves were unwearied and unburdened. When they were free to be who they were made to be.

And then remember that ruin came, in fire and blood and ashes, for Mahal’s children - and directly as a result of their obedience. Remember that the Balrogs woke because the Dwarves delved too deep in the earth for the materials of creation. Remember that dragons came upon them in the Grey Mountains, in Erebor, because of their wealth - because they had worked and created and become prosperous in the sight of their maker. Remember that they were turned out to wander, left homeless upon the earth again and again, for no other reason than that they had done well. Evil comes to the Dwarves again and again and destroys the works of their hands, steals their treasures, and turns their sacred places into haunts of evil.

This is obscenity. This is foulness beyond what words can convey. To have a Balrog of Morgoth in your halls, plunging them into silent darkness and ruin - to have Smaug sleeping lazily on the remains of the Dwarves and treasures of the Kingdom Under the Mountain - this is beyond what any outsider could understand, I think. This is insult and sacrilege and blasphemy all at once. This is evil.

In the films, Jackson has chosen to show the invasion of Erebor in mostly military and political terms. They Dwarves are exiles, trying to kill the invader and reclaim their homes. In “The Hobbit”, Tolkien portrays the quest for Erebor as little more than a glorified treasure hunt by gold-maddened lunatics with more beard than brain.

But what if is deeper and older and fiercer than even the desire for gold and home and revenge? If Erebor is Sacred ground, and Smaug’s hoard is a mountain of prayers and offerings and supplication, then the Quest is nothing short of a crusade. The Dwarves were made to create - but they were also made to endure, and stand against evil, and continue the fight their Maker waged against Morgoth and his foul creations.

And when Smaug is dead and their Mountain is theirs again, Bilbo Baggins condemns Thorin soundly for being so consumed by love of gold and treasure that he will not speak to the armies that march on his mountain demanding treasure. Let me say that again. Bard and Thranduil march on Erebor, still reeking of the evil that has befouled that sacred place for more than a century, and demand a share of the treasure of Erebor - Dwarvish treasure, made by Dwarvish hands, and treat it as nothing more than mere gold.

And in this light, my friends, what is the Battle of Five Armies? What is Thorin’s stand against Bard and Thranduil and all the outsiders who have never understood what it means to be Khazad, who can never see Dwarves as anything but short and greedy men? What is that moment when Thorin and his companions throw themselves into battle, to their deaths, shining like gold upon a dying fire?

It is not gold-madness. It may be something far worse.

There is holiness in this. They are crusaders. They are the children of their Maker, and they are reclaiming their birthright.


	3. Destruction by Fire: Sacrilege or Creation?

From a question posed by the incomparable Avelera: Hobbit meta speculation - dwarves view destruction by fire as sacrilegious - discuss ;)

(THANK YOU for asking this - I have Thoughts on this subjects!)

A Truth: Mahal, the Maker, is a smith. He works in fire and metal, and great are his works.

A Truth: Mahal created the Dwarves by his own hands and after his own likeness, that he might teach them and bring them up, and that they might learn to be like him.

Then: The Dwarves were created in fire, tempered for strength and endurance, and imbued with the Sacred Flame when Illuvatar accepted them as his adopted children. Fire is Creation.

A Truth: the Dwarves do not burn their dead. It is a not a thing unknown in Middle Earth; the Kings of Men once burned theirs on great pyres - but the Dwarves do not. Not until Azanulbizar, and the Burned Dwarves. Not until necessity drove them past all lines of what had been acceptable, until the choice was to burn the works of their Maker’s hands or to let them rot in the sun, falling victim to the corpse-eaters. 

A Truth: to be a Burned Dwarf is a thing that becomes a mark of distinction, after Azanulbizar.

I ask you, then: if you work in fire and metal, and mighty are your works; if you create beauty and strength in a refiner’s fire; if fire is life and creation and your tangible proof that you are alive and beloved of your Creator - how can you cast anything lightly into the flames and watch it’s consumption? Can you treat that force that brought you into being as nothing but destruction? I think you do not burn the cities of your enemies, if you are a Dwarf. I think you do not burn anything without need.

Fire is for creation and refinement. Fire burns out impurities, burns off everything you do not need, so that what is left is pure and strong, as the Maker would have it. Dragonfire is an abomination, because there is no creation in it - but to pass through it and come out the other side makes you stronger, makes you something special. 

Burning your own dead is sacrilege - but it also serves a purpose. It protects them from worse indignities - and it makes you stronger, because it is what you must do to survive and to protect those you have loved. It is a Creation, of a sort, this intentional destruction by fire. You create yourselves again as you lay the fire and mourn the dead. You make yourselves stronger and more ready. 

But how must Mahal mourn for his children who are lost in fire?

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the dire lack of updates of late, folks! Life has me more than a bit worn down, and my novel (All Past Years by K. Engle at Amazon, please do check it out if you're interested!) and it's sequels are eating up all my writing time. I do hope to get back to my unfinished works sooner rather than later, but for now, meta is somehow easier than fiction. Hope this might be of interest to some!


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